In the manufacture of a wooden deck for homes or the like, the deck is constructed from beams supported on ground-engaging posts, and joists extending at right angles to the beams to support the floorboards which run parallel to the beams. The interconnection of the beams and the joists by simply using nails requires carpentry and construction skills normally beyond the experience and dexterity of the average homeowner.
There have been developed and sold, in the past, various "deck kits" which include beam-post connectors and beam-joist connectors which are metallic and which obviate the necessity of construction skills. The type of beam-joist connection previously supplied was a simple "U"-shaped bracket having a lower central web which was nailed to the beam to extend transversely thereof and which had upstanding flanges between which the joist was interposed and then fastened by means of fasteners driven through apertures in the brackets. Such brackets of this simple "U"-shape are no wider than the joist which they support and have very little lateral stability. Further, they must be fastened to the beam by nails driven through the web and struck by a hammer passing between the flanges. Thus, this type of bracket is neither structurally sound nor easily utilized.
In a typical deck installation, a railing about the perimeter of the deck is required. Such a railing normally includes vertical railing posts which are attached to the deck by the same type of U-shaped bracket which is utilized to interconnect the beam and the joist, although the bracket may be provided with a projecting lateral tang of the same width as the bracket web and which is integrally formed with the bracket web. A bracket of this character, when utilized as a railing post bracket, suffers from the same lack of lateral stability as the joist bracket herebefore described.
Thus, it will be seen that within the present state of the art, there is a need for a beam-joist connection bracket of increased lateral stability, and this same need for lateral stability, and this same need for lateral stability exists in the present means for interconnecting deck rail posts to the deck structure and to a peripheral railing. It would be particularly advantageous if the same bracket could be utilized for both purposes, in distinction to the presently used structure which requires specific, individual brackets for each purpose.